44 A. AND M. COLLEGE APIARY. 



against the limb and the greater portion of the bees are thereby shaken 

 into the basket. The lid is now closed, either by hand or by catching it 

 on a limb, and the swarm catcher stood up in such a manner that the 

 basket is near the point of original clustering. After being allowed to 

 remain here for a few minutes the bees that were not caught inside the 

 basket will cluster on the outside and the entire swarm can then be car- 

 ried to its new location. 



PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF SWARMING. 



The control of swarming is closely coupled with the question of sur- 

 plus honey production. Inasmuch as the honey gathering ability of a 

 colony depends primarily upon the number of individuals in the hive 

 it will be seen that it is of decided advantage to keep all colonies as 

 strong in numbers as possible. Swarming decreases the number of bees 

 in the colony, and could it be entirely prevented would very materially 

 increase the honey production. Where increase is desired it is advisa- 

 ble to allow each colony to cast one swarm a season, and for the begin- 

 ner we would not advise the attempt to control swarming by any of the 

 numerous methods recommended in the bee journals. None of them 

 are perfect, and considerable loss of time and labor, besides confusion, 

 may result to the inexperienced bee keeper who attempts to solve this 

 problem which, at the outset, should only be attempted by experienced 

 apiarists. The most practical method yet devised and which is in com- 

 mon practice by many bee keepers in Texas, is known as the "shook- 

 swarm" method. Briefly, this is as follows : When the swarming fever 

 is fairly on, the old hive is removed from its stand and an entirely new 

 hive put in its place containing frames with full sheets of foundation. 

 The super, bees and all, is now taken from the old hive, and placed 

 upon the new. The combs are then taken from the old hive and the 

 bees shaken off in front of the new hive. The queen is also placed in 

 the new hive. The old hive, containing now nothing but brood in all 

 stages and a few bees, is placed in a new location, the entrance narrowed 

 down to a small aperture and left to itself. The bees hatching rapidly 

 in this hive will care for the brood and will rear a queen from the young 

 larvae, hence at the end of 21 days we will have a complete colony. 

 Instead of allowing the bees to rear a queen, a mature queen or a matured 

 queen cell (a cell in which the queen is nearly ready to emerge) can be 

 given this colony. 



It is supposed that the rough handling, shaking and the entering 1 of a 

 new hive in a way satisfies the swarming fever of the bees, and upon 

 this point apparently rests the success of the method. It will also be 

 well to state in this connection that swarming can be to a great extent 

 discouraged by giving an abundance of storage room in the supers at the 

 beginning of the honey flow. The gorging of the hive with honey is 

 one of the things that hastens swarming and is perhaps one of its prime 

 causes. 



A great number of methods for preventing swarming will be found 

 in bee journals and books, but none, unless it be the divisible brood 

 chamber, have been found equal to the shook swarm method described 

 above. The ^divisible brood chamber" method, which depend^ upon the 

 manipulation of the brood nest during swarming time, promises to be 



